Zakir Musa revolts against Hizbul Mujahideen

May 13, 2017

Srinagar, May 13: In a revolt against his senior commanders based in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Zakir Musa on Saturday dissociated himself from the outfit, saying he can’t “sacrifice his life for the establishment of a secular state.”

“From today on, I have no association with any outfit. I am of my own. I don’t represent Hizbul Mujahideen,” Zakir said in the latest six-and-a-half minute audio attributed to him and shared on social media.

The statement came hours after PoK based spokesperson of the outfit Saleem Hashmi termed Zakir's threat to separatist leaders as “unacceptable.”

“Such a statement is unacceptable to us. It reflects the personal opinion of Zakir . Post Burhan Wani’s martyrdom, the nation and the leadership are united at every front and taking ahead the struggle for freedom and Islam to its end," Hashmi was quoted by a local news gathering agency as saying.

Zakir, who took over the reins of Hizbul from slain Burhan Wani last year, had on Friday threatened to slit the throats of senior separatist leaders and hang them in the city centre at Lal Chowk if they dared repeat that Kashmir represented a political and not pan-Islamic struggle.
Zakir, who joined militancy after leaving his BTech course in Chandigarh in 2013, called separatist leaders “hypocrites, infidels and followers of evil.”

After Hashmi's rebuke, Zakir released an audio clip asserting that he stands by his earlier message. "So, if Hizbul Mujahideen doesn’t represent me then I also don’t represent them," he said.

"After my last audio message, lot of confusion is being spread in Kashmir. I stand by my speech and by my message. It doesn’t bother me what others say, but I stand by my speech. But see I have had not said anything against a particular person or Geelani sahab but I have said only against that individual who is against Islam and talks about freedom for secular state," Zakir, who is believed to be operating from south Kashmir, asserted.
He also says that he has no association with global terror organisations like the ISIS and Al-Qaeda. “I have no association with ISIS, Al-Qaeda. I even don’t know whether they are right or wrong. I don’t have time to research about them,” he said.

Zakir's last two audio message, in video format, were full of quotes of Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, the US-Yemeni scholar and al-Qaeda ideologue who was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

Deccan Herald could not independently verify the authenticity of the audio clips. However, sources said, the voice matched Musa’s earlier video and audio clips.

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Average age of school children picking up drugs, smoking habit in 10 Indian cities around 13 years!

News Network

December 13,2025

New Delhi: School-going children are picking up drug and smoking habits and engaging in consumption of alcohol, with the average age of introduction to such harmful substances found to be around 13 years, suggesting a need for earlier interventions as early as primary school, a multi-city survey by AIIMS-Delhi said.

The findings also showed substance use increased in higher grades, with grade XI/XII students two times more likely to report use of substances when compared with grade VIII students. This emphasised the importance of continued prevention and intervention through middle and high school.

The study led by Dr Anju Dhawan of AIIMS's National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, published in the National Medical Journal of India this month, looks at adolescent substance use across diverse regions.

The survey included 5,920 students from classes 8, 9, 11 and 12 in urban government, private and rural schools across 10 cities -- Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Delhi, Dibrugarh, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jammu, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Ranchi. The data were collected between May 2018 and June 2019.

The average age of initiation for any substance was 12.9 (2.8) years. It was lowest for inhalants (11.3 years) followed by heroin (12.3 years) and opioid pharmaceuticals (without prescription; 12.5 years).

Overall, 15.1 per cent of participants reported lifetime use, 10.3 per cent reported past year use, and 7.2 per cent reported use in the past month of any substance, the study found.

The most common substances used in the past year, after tobacco (4 per cent) and alcohol (3.8 per cent), were opioids (2.8 per cent), followed by cannabis (2 per cent) and inhalants (1.9 per cent). Use of non-prescribed pharmaceutical opioids was most common among opioid users (90.2 per cent).

On being asked, 'Do you think this substance is easily available for a person of your age' separately for each substance category, nearly half the students (46.3 per cent) endorsed that tobacco products and more than one-third of the students (36.5 per cent) agreed that a person of their age can easily procure alcohol products.

Similarly, for Bhang (21.9 per cent), ganja/charas (16.1 per cent), inhalants (15.2 per cent), sedatives (13.7 per cent), opium and heroin (10 per cent each), the students endorsed that these can be easily procured.

About 95 per cent of the children, irrespective of their grade, agreed with the statement that 'drug use is harmful'.

The rates of substance use (any) among boys were significantly higher than those of girls for substance use (ever), use in the past year and use in the past 30 days. Compared to grade VIII students, grade IX students were more likely, and grade XI/XII students were twice as likely to have used any substance (ever).

The likelihood of past-year use of any substance was also higher for grade IX students and for grade XI/XII students as compared to grade VIII students.

About 40 per cent of students mentioned that they had a family member who used tobacco or alcohol each. The use of cannabis (any product) and opioid (any product) by a family member was reported by 8.2 per cent and 3.9 per cent of students, respectively, while the use of other substances, such as inhalants/sedatives by family was 2-3 per cent, the study found.

A relatively smaller percentage of students reported use of tobacco or alcohol among peers as compared to among family members, while a higher percentage reported inhalants, sedatives, cannabis or opioid use among peers.

Children using substances (past year) compared to non-users reported significantly higher any substance use by their family members and peers.

There were 25.7 per cent students who replied 'yes' to the question 'conflicts/fights often occur in your family'. Most students also replied affirmatively to 'family members are aware of how their time is being spent' and 'damily members are aware of with whom they spend their time'.

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